Once Upon a One Shot
by CreditlessKumo
Summary: A series of one-shots that were inspired by the Once Upon a Time universe. There will be a mixture of different ships such as Captain Swan, Outlaw Queen and even a little bit of Captain Charming! There will be more ships added as this series goes on.
1. Welcome to the Jolly Roger

**All one shots will be made with the collaborative help of Justrockzyxxx.**

 **~Pairings that appear in this one shot: Captain Swan and Captain Charming.**

 **Disclaimer - I do not own the rights to Once Upon a Time (although I wish I did) so I own no characters. We do own the plot of this idea though. Alyssa is rockzy's OC.**

The Jolly Roger was buzzing with activity as the clock on the wall hit twelve on a busy monday lunchtime. A blonde head could be seen darting between customers and tables as she juggled dishes ladened with piping hot food. A slightly smaller, dark haired man followed closely behind, seemingly entrapped in everything that the blonde woman was saying.

"The aim is to get the food to the table without dropping any, hitting anybody and also, make sure it's still hot. Working front of house means that you not only get to be the face of 'The Jolly Roger' but also means that you are responsible for maintaining high standards." She turned to a table and placed the plate she'd be carrying down on the table in front of a rather small man with glasses and a pickaxe with the name 'Doc' inscribed on it. "Here you are sir. Your toad in the hole with extra onions. If you need anything else then don't hesitate to ask. Enjoy!" She flashed a beaming smile then moved towards the door where two new people were waiting to be seated. She began to talk to the young waiter once again. "Now I'll show you how to-'

"SWAN!"

Emma stopped immediately, spinning towards the bar where a man was serving behind the bar dressed as a pirate captain. Her trainee collided with her front and stayed there for a second before seeing the murderous look Emma was giving him.

"I'm sorry. I just-" he began.

"Will Scarlet. First day. Don't make me mad." Emma interjected.

"SWAN! The phone!"

"I've got to deal with this, you sort out these customers." She turned towards the two people who had appeared behind them and beamed brightly, "I'm sorry about the wait, my employee here will make sure that you are seated now."

She spun and looked at Will with a withering look and a lowered voice, "After they're seated, get their order and carry on putting the dishes out onto tables. Don't mess it up. I'll be a few minutes."

She then stormed towards the bar without a further word.

Will stared longingly after her before muttering "But you haven't shown me how to do that yet. I only arrived half an hour ago." He sighed then turned towards the waiting customers and tried to copy Emma's smile. Somehow it didn't feel as warm as he intended and the customers looked at each other apprehensively.

"Uh...Hello! My name is Will and if you just bear with me a minute I'll...uh... get you seated in no time." He tried to smile confidently as he picked up the heavy brown book that was on the pedestal. It had 'Reservations' on the front of it in gold calligraphy. He smiled at the customers again then opened it to the right date. There was nothing written down at all. Damn, had he really forgotten to record all the customers so far?

Will quickly asked the customers' names and scrawled them down. He closed the reservation book and put it back before turning around and looking for a table in which he could lead these two people, who were becoming increasingly restless. He mentally cursed until he saw a perfect table in the corner in front of the windows.

"Just follow me please." He asked and then led them to it. They sat down and Will noticed the lack of menus at the table. "I'll be back with the menus in a second," he gushed before rushing off. He headed straight to another couple who seemed to have finished with theirs as they put them down.

"Are you finished with these? Good," he said before whisking them off the table and heading back the way he'd come. He thrust the menus into his customers' hands before darting away. He scanned the room and noticed the build up of dishes which had occurred on the kitchen partition while he had been occupied trying to sit people down.

"Bloody hell!" Will swore to himself as he hurried towards it.

"Excuse me! Waiter!" He heard someone shout. He sighed internally then turned, attempting a pleasant smile, and saw the couple that he'd taken the menus from. The man was the one who had called him as he still had his arm raised. He made his way over to them.

"Yes?"

"We'd like to order now as you did take the menus off of my date and I so gracefully,"

"Of course, what would you like?" Will said before realising he had no paper to write on. He looked at the table and saw the complimentary place mats and and pencils. He shrugged and grabbed one of each as the man began to recite their orders.

"We'd both like the hamburger and fries with apple juice and apple crumble please."

Will hastily scribbled it down then nodded, smiled and went off towards the place where he presumed all of the orders were clipped. He noticed how they all stated table numbers and swore again when he realised that he had no idea. Instead he wrote 'Middle table, brunette pretty girl, creepy guy' on the bottom of the order before pinning it up. With that done, Will turned around and picked up two dishes. '2' was written on a card next to them so he turned around and looked for a table near the door which hadn't been served food. He saw one and focused in on it so intently that he didn't notice the chair pulling out until it was too late. He collided with it and went flying forward before landing on top of the plates and getting lasagne plastered onto his front. He looked up at the shocked people who he'd landed at the feet of. Smiling feebly as he got up, he picked up the plates and prayed that most of the meal had stayed on the plate miraculously, although he was a mess.

"SCARLET!" He heard Emma shout from behind him. He flinched and turned to see Emma's look of murderous intent. "Get to the kitchen. Clean yourself up and then see me. Okay?"

He nodded slightly then rushed to the flip doors which would allow him entrance to the kitchen. Plates still in hand as he heard her begin apologising to all customers involved and offering a drink and dessert on the house to please them.

As soon as he was in the kitchen he dumped the plates next to a large sink and let out a large sound of exasperation.

"How can this get any worse?" He asked himself out loud before running the hot tap and grabbing a cloth from the cupboard beneath it. Once the water was warm enough he soaked the cloth and began furiously rubbing his black shirt. Cursing all the while about how his day better not get any worse. "This is my first shift for fuck sake," he grumbled before hearing a very familiar voice and frowning in confusion.

"You must be the the new front of house staff that Emma was telling us to look out for earlier. It's tough working here at first but it gets better. We're like one big happy family once you get to know us. What's your name?"

Will turned around and his blood ran cold. Before him stood the father of the ex that he had recently and unceremoniously dumped and left in Boston last week. He cursed every god that he'd ever heard of as he saw the recognition fall into David's face.

"Scarlet right? Will? Alyssa's ex boyfriend. I remember you, what did you do to her again?" David had gone dangerously quiet. The sizzling of the food that he was preparing was the only thing filling the silence as Will began to hyperventilate.

"Um… Funny thing that. Umm… well...Uh...Emma wants me." He stuttered as he ran out again, exhaling in relief at being able to leave the situation.

* * *

"Scarlet is hopeless. He's bloody useless. Who writes orders on a placemat with no table number then goes ahead and ruins two dishes by being careless enough to collide with a chair. Now I've had to clear up his mess and carry on his duties which he'd been running behind with. I don't work well with other people, Hook. How do you expect me to keep that monstrosity of an employee on past today? Tell me because I have no idea at all,"

Emma slumped behind the bar as Killian listened to her ramblings in silence. When it seemed as if she'd finished, he turned around and grabbed her hands tightly between his right hand and hook, giving her the physical reassurance that she was too tired to realise she needed.

"Swan, we opened this restaurant together but we can only do so much. We own this place-"

"I own this place,"

"Right, you own this place and we are only two people. We need more staff in order to cope with the higher demand. We've had this talk before which led to us asking for help. We have it now. He's not entirely competent I admit-"

"That's putting it lightly. He has been nothing but-" Killian placed his hook on Emma's lips and she stopped immediately, looking straight into his eyes in confusion.

"Give him a chance Swan. He's new. Anyway, it looks like you need distracting. Stay here, I'll pour you a glass of rum and you can sit here, admiring the view,"

He lowered his hook, winked at Emma and quickly pecked her gently on the lips. She smiled and admired him adoringly.

"Killian, you know exactly how to make me feel better, do you think we should close up early?"

Hook smiled wider then shook his head.

"We have six reservations tonight, two of them large families. That would be a huge loss if we didn't let them in,"

Emma sighed in discontentment, stood up and leaned closer to Hook.

"I really appreciate everything that you've sacrificed to help me open up this place. I really do appreciate it and… I lo-"

"I'm all cleaned up now Emma!" An all-too-familiar voice interrupted. "I'm terribly sorry about the mess I caused. It won't happen again."

Emma and Killian both gave each other a look at their disrupted moment until Killian turned away to serve a customer at the bar and Emma turned to face Will.

"It's okay. Mistakes happen. Just don't let it happen again and focus on the task at hand. For now, I just want you to seat people, check reservations - there's six tonight by the way- and take orders. Okay? Think you can do that?"

Will was taken back by how calm she seemed until he noticed the flushed cheeks and glimpses that her and the bar man were having.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted anything. I didn't know! Honest to god I didn't know!" He apologised. Desperate to make sure that Emma didn't get even more upset with him.

"It's okay. If it wasn't you, it would've been a customer. It was a stupid idea in the first place," Emma pondered to no one in particular. "Just go and do what I told you."

Will nodded slightly then rushed off to stand behind the pedestal by the front door.

Emma sighed when she heard a plate smash and a customer jump up. An apology written on her face as she looked around erratically.

"Scarlet! Sort that out!" She shouted. Her mood quickly declining again as a customer came up to her to complain about their food being slightly too cold for their liking.

"What was it you ordered?"

"It was the hot apple pie with extra vanilla ice cream,"

"And it was too cold for your liking?"

"Yes. I want a refund immediately for this,"

"You've already eaten half of it. Why would I refund that?"

"I don't understand,"

Emma sighed irritably before taking a deep breath and explaining further. She noticed Killian listening in. "That would be a terrible loss of profit, if you don't like cold food then why did you order extra ice cream to begin with? That's your fault unfortunately. It's not ours,"

"I wasn't expecting it to be so cold. Especially with the hot apple pie,"

"It's ice cream, what did you expect?"

"You are very rude. I don't like your attitude. I want to speak to the manager,"

"Um.. I am the manager,"

"I want to speak to the owner of this establishment then,"

"I'm also the owner. If you don't like our food then please just pay your bill, then never come back. It's simple."

The customer harrumphed heavily then took the drink that they'd been carrying and threw it at Emma. Emma gasped as the juice soaked into her clothes and dripped down her face. She gave the customer a venomous look which was met with a smug grin.

"Scarlet! Get this customer to pay her bill then escort her to the door." She stared back at the customer, furious. "And you don't ever return here. You're barred as of now."

Will looked up from where he'd just finished mopping up the spilt food and nodded. The customer simply returned to their table.

"Swan. There's a-"

"I don't care, Hook."

"But Swan. You need to-"  
"Am I in a state to do anything that needs to be done, Killian? Really? I have just been publicly humiliated in my own restaurant, so you know what? I don't care. You never helped me either. You just stood there and watched it happen. You could have have stepped in at any time, but did you? No. Bar's closed now. Just go. Help David or something. Just get out of my face,"

"Swan-"

"GO AWAY!"

Hook gave her a deflated look before putting up the 'Bar Closed' sign and trudging his way to the kitchen. Will gave him a look of pity as he passed.

As soon as he reached the kitchen he went to the sink and leant over it, trying to stop the tears that were threatening to fall due to Emma's harsh words. God knows he loved her but she's right. He didn't do anything to help. He's a disgrace.

"Hey, Captain," David greeted as he wiped his hands on a grubby towel and approached Killian.

"Hey, Prince Charming," Killian murmured back.

"What's wrong?" David queried upon seeing the small tears gathered around Killian's eyes.

Hook looked up with a fake exaggerated smile on his face.

"Nothing. Everything's shipshape."

"It's obviously not. I can tell." David stepped towards him after turning the temperature on all his utensils down, which would allow him a few more moments with Killian.

* * *

Will walked over to an old man after being called over.

"Yes Sir?"

"Could I have some more napkins, please? I've just had a little spill." On the table was a little puddle of what looked like wine.

"Certainly, Sir." Will replied before going straight to the secondary door of the kitchens which was closest to where the cutlery and napkins were stored. He entered them, and noticed Hook and David through the shelves and ducked, only peeking out once he was sure they hadn't seen him.

Once David had stepped close enough, he put both of his hands on Killian's arms and focused on his eyes. Once David was sure he had his undivided attention he began to rub Killian's arms gently in a sign of comfort.

"Tell me what's wrong?" David suggested.

After a short silence, Hook began to explain.

"It's Emma. She got angry and ranted about Will being incompetent and I calmed her down enough to make her act civil but then a dodgy customer started arguing with her and now she's had a drink thrown at her in her own establishment. She took it out on me and she's right to. I didn't do anything to help her. I'm useless."

David absorbed the information before replying.

"You're not useless. You're anything but. You're a great man so don't let her run you down. She's just angry. She doesn't mean it. Believe me."

Hook stared curiously into David's eyes. "You think so?"

"I know so."

There was silence between the two, both locked in eye contact, before David began to steadily lean closer, the space between their lips slowly closing. Killian stood entranced for a second, then quickly placed his hook on David's chest to stop him. David gave him a pleading look which fell to a disheartened one as he finally turned to move away. He was about to apologise until Killian pulled him back around.

"Thanks, but not in the workplace." He smirked at David, then winked and walked out of the kitchen, seemingly in a better mood than when he came in. David smiled to himself, understanding the double meanings of that sentence. He returned to check on his food until he heard a bang and a curse coming from behind the shelves across the room.

He stormed over and saw Will, crouched behind the unit and clutching napkins.

"Dropped these, sorry." Will blurted out.

"How long have you been there?" David demanded furiously, picking Scarlet up by the scruff of his neck.

"Not long. I didn't see anything between you and the barman."

"Then how did you know he was in here?"

"Umm… well…"

"Don't you dare say anything about what happened to anyone. After what you did to Alyssa and now spying on people, I'll dice you into little chunks and make you into a pie. Understand?"

Will eyed the large knives in a silver rack behind David. He didn't doubt that David could probably wield one of those just like a sword. "Crystal. Please let me go." Will begged.

"Give me a reason why?"

"Umm… I work here so..uhh...you can make my life hell once I've delivered these napkins. I have no other place to go so I'm stuck working here."

David thought this through, then let him go.

"Go away. If you ever do anything like that again, I'll know and you won't just get a warning from me. Tread carefully, Scarlet. It may be your last step otherwise."

Will nodded and ran out of the kitchen. David smiled to himself as he turned, picked out a knife from the rack, and grabbed a handful of vegetables from the fridge.

* * *

"Please come again soon!" Emma called as she watched the last customers leave. She shut the door, locked it and flipped the closed sign before sighing in relief. Today had been a whirlwind to say the least. She turned to Killian who was behind her and hugged him before kissing him softly. She then turned to Will.

"So. How did you like it?"

Will had to think for a moment before answering.

"It's definitely hectic and needs a lot of hard work but I love it here regardless. It's busy and I need busy right now."

"I'm happy with how you worked today, even if you did have a…rocky start. But you improved immensely and god knows I need the help so if you're happy to stay, I'll see you first thing tomorrow morning."

Will was stunned.

"Really?"  
"Really. Welcome aboard the Jolly Roger."


	2. The Queen's Bakery

**All one shots will be made with the collaborative help of Justrockzyxxx.**

 **~Pairings that appear in this one shot: Outlaw Queen.**

 **Disclaimer - We do not own the rights to Once Upon a Time (although we wish we did), but we do own the plot of this idea.**

The light scent of cakes baking had filled the small bakery. The sun shining directly through the window made the room seem bright and airy whilst the sight of buns and pastries attracted all kinds of hungry customers to her store. Regina was currently kneading bread dough on a floury surface as she waited for the chime of the door, which would tell her when another customer had entered. Once she'd finished kneading, she placed the dough on a tray to her left and put it straight into the oven behind her. She then clapped her hands together and smiled as a puff of white flour filled the air.

The doorbell chimed and she turned with a pleasant smile. The smile grew even wider when she saw that it wasn't just a customer that had walked in, but Robin Hood. The man that she loved and adored.

"How is my fair maiden doing on this bright and sunny morning?" he asked her, a mischievous look in his eye. Regina looked at the gold watch on her wrist then replied.

"It's two o'clock in the afternoon I'll have you know." She flashed a smirk at him as he came closer, lifting the counter door so he could come through onto her side. Regina's breathing became steadily faster as Robin drew closer to where she was stood.

"An even better reason to tell me how you are." Robin pondered.

"I'm doing fine, thanks. What's brought you here? Where's Roland?" Regina questioned. Robin stepped closer, and Regina felt an urge to hold him, however her hands were covered in flour that would mess up his green hoodie.

"The merry men are minding him for a little while, thought i'd take the opportunity to visit my favourite woman doing what she loves," Robin slipped his arms around Regina's waist and held her close. Regina smiled in adoration.

"I should be preparing more of today's special, you know, it's very popular,"

Robin smiled. "And what would that be?"

"Apple crumble, my own recipe." Robin glanced behind Regina and his eyes lit up with inspiration. Several small piles of ingredients had been placed on the counter in preparation, including flour, sugar, butter and several gleaming red apples. Regina always used her own fruit, which she grew in her garden at home. Robin knew exactly what he had to do, he just needed some distractions.  
He quickly scanned the room to check if any customers were waiting to be served while Regina gave him a playful but curious look. When he was sure no one was looking, Robin guided Regina backwards until she was leaning back against the counter. He leaned in, and pressed their lips together in a passionate kiss. Regina couldn't help but smile, temporarily breaking the contact before quickly returning the gesture. She forgot about her flour-covered hands and brought them to hold the sides of Robin's head, while Robin placed his hands on the counter behind them. The kiss lasted longer than both expected, which was deep with lust and infatuation. The busy sounds of the bakery and ovens was lost on them, and for a short moment, it felt as if they were the only people in the building. Neither wanted to let go.

Suddenly, a voice spoke up behind them.

"Erm... excuse me?" Robin and Regina jumped in shock, and both spun around. Robin quickly placed his hands into his large, hoodie pockets. The customer looked embarrassed to say the least. "I'd... like some service please," Regina tried to steady her breathing while laughing at the flour that was now smeared across the sides of Robin's face.

"Of course! I do apologise," she replied, attempting composure. She hurried over to the counter, looking over her shoulder to give Robin a lustful smile. He returned it, but as soon as Regina was busy with the customer, he got to work.

With Regina now at the other side of the kitchen, Robin grabbed the nearest empty bag he could find lying around under the countertop. He placed one of each of Regina's apple crumble ingredients into the bag, such as a bag of sugar and a pack of butter, with exception to one of the apples. He could pick some when he returned home. He retrieved the supplies he had snuck into his hoodie pockets and also added them to his small collection. Finally, he grabbed a cloth near to the sink and used it to wipe away some of the flour on his cheeks and in his hair.  
Robin then looked around, and spotted the back door. He swiftly made his way over to it and exited. He paused, realising he couldn't just leave without saying farewell. He leaned half his body back into the kitchen, being careful not to reveal the bag of supplies he held behind his back. He called over to Regina.

"I'm afraid I have to dash off! I'll see you when you return from work!" Regina turned in his direction, puzzled.

"Oh, okay," she replied with disappointment just loud enough for Robin to hear over the bustling noise of the bakery. "I'll miss you,"

Robin responded with that beautiful smile of his that Regina couldn't get enough of. "Till then, my Queen!" he said before finally leaving.

Robin admired the bag he was holding as he made his way home. Surely Regina wouldn't miss just one of each ingredient? Even if she noticed, Robin was doing this for a good cause. He would make it up to her later today. And if _this_ wasn't enough, he had other ways of apologising. Robin smirked to himself, remembering his and Regina's encounter just a moment ago. Today was going to be a fun day.

* * *

Robin stood in front of the carefully prepared ingredients as he considered what was his first step in making this apple crumble. He had no idea how to make one but he'd seen Regina do it and she made it look effortless, so how hard could it be?

He decided that he should probably heat the oven up first. That was the first step in all recipes, right? He looked at the dial on the oven. It went up to two hundred and fifty celsius. What was the average baking temperature? He decided to just put it on full and hope for the best.

That done he turned his attention to the apples which he had just freshly picked from the garden. How did Regina cut them? Did she slice them? Dice them? Blend them? Definitely not that last one. He decided to play it safe and just dice them, as he remembered when eating that the pieces had been quite small. He pulled a knife from the block to the right of him and set to work initially slicing the apples, ready to dice them soon. He took a deep breath as a trickle of perspiration beaded from his forehead. Who knew that baking could be such hard work? Regina made it look like a piece of cake, pun intended.

Once the apples were diced (core included. Regina did include the cores, didn't she?) he placed them all into the bottom of a ceramic baking dish. He looked quizzically at the dish as he tried to remember whether it was that he used or the metal cake tin. He decided to go for the metal tin instead so poured all of the apples into the base of it. It was looking good so far. He allowed himself a small moment of celebration at having made it this far before becoming engrossed in his task again.

Next was the topping. The crumbly topping. He looked at the remaining ingredients he had. It looked like flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon and was that raw sugar? He searched his mind for what Regina always did at this point but then again, whenever he was watching her bake, he was watching her smile and eyes more than anything. He became entranced for a moment, imagining a memory of her laughing, covered in flour, before shaking his head and becoming serious again. He was distracted very easily it seemed.

He placed a plastic bowl in front of him and emptied the flour into it. That was the first and most vital ingredient of any dish, wasn't it? He then decided that the sugar would make it sweeter so poured in the white sugar, as he was still unsure about the raw sugar. It was brown, surely sugar should be white. Next he added the cinnamon as he knew that this was, in actual fact, an actual ingredient at this stage. Along with a pinch of...a pinch of…he stopped and thought for a moment before remembering. A pinch of salt! But how much salt was a pinch? An actual pinch? He doubted that. Nobody would be able to taste it. Wondering why salt was an ingredient in a dessert anyway, he picked up the salt shaker and opened the lid before pouring in a generous amount. There, that would do nicely. He got a wooden spoon and mixed the dry ingredients for a minute before he thought to carry on.

He needed to make these dry ingredients crumbly. Thus, the name 'crumble', but how on earth was it done? If he added water, he knew it would turn into dough, but keeping it dry wasn't doing it any favours either. He sighed heavily at this new obstacle. He had butter left. He picked it up tentatively and peered at it, wondering what on earth he would have to do with it.

He decided to just put the butter in the bowl then separate it into chunks using a knife. That sounded reasonable, right? He did so and then tried to mix it again with the spoon. When it wasn't working as well as he had hoped, he put his hands into the mixture and started rubbing the butter. It was cold and slimy but it appeared to be beginning to work, until it began to melt. Was that supposed to happen? He panicked slightly and decided to put the entire mixture in the fridge to cool it down.

Ten minutes later he returned and tried again. It still wasn't forming crumble, so he decided that he needed to make crumbs of his own. Now, what produced crumbs in large amounts? Bread most certainly did, but it needed to be sweeter. Cake… No...the crumbs would be too soft, but biscuits...shortbread in particular. That would be absolutely perfect. He hastily opened the cupboard and saw a box of unopened shortbread that made up part of Regina's extensive collection of biscuits. He smiled in success and carefully extracted them before crushing them in his hand and scattering all the crumbs created into the mixture. He did that for about ten biscuits and then started rubbing the butter and flour again. This time it seemed to work a lot better as there were some extra crumbs now to help the friction. He smiled at his own logic, then put the finished crumbs on top of the apples. Smiling in relief as he was spreading them evenly. Any big lumps were quickly pushed down and any sparse areas were quickly covered. It was starting to look really good now. He looked down at it proudly, then opened the oven door. Physically pulling back when the blast of hot air hit his face. Once he'd recovered he put the crumble in the oven then set the timer. An hour at two hundred and fifty degrees celsius.

Perfect.

* * *

Regina sighed with relief when she saw her white mansion. Home. After a long day at work she would finally be able to spend some quality time with Robin. She waltzed happily through the gate and opened the front door. The acrid smell of burning hit her nose as soon as she entered. She listened intently for any sound of fire crackling, however when there was none, she was immediately intrigued as to what on Earth had happened. Regina walked straight into the kitchen and was amused to see Robin furiously flapping a tea towel at the smoke alarm. All of the windows were open and there was a pleasant draft coming through because of it.

Robin turned exasperatedly and froze when he saw her. That was when she noticed the mess that her kitchen had become. There were ingredients everywhere, the oven door was left wide open, there were dishes piled high in the sink and a smoking...something...was left on the draining board.

"What happened here?" She asked in astoundment, honestly curious as to how one man could have destroyed her kitchen so considerably.

"Umm… Surprise, Regina." Robin faltered with a smile on his face. "I tried to make you an apple crumble, as I know it's your favourite but...it didn't go as well as I planned." He muttered before sending pleading eyes her way.

Regina sighed then looked at the burnt crumble.

"How long did you put it in for?"

"An hour,"

"And at what temperature?"

"Maximum."

"Oh."

"Look Regina, I'm really sorry. I just wanted to make you happy."

She looked at Robin compassionately as he begged for her forgiveness, but she couldn't find the will to be mad at him.

"You don't need to apologise. As long as you buttered the tin, I can get rid of it easily."

Robin froze.

"You did butter the tin, didn't you?" Regina questioned.

Robin closed his eyes in regret.

"I am ashamed to admit this, but I completely forgot to butter the tin. I understand if you see me as useless."

Regina gave a comforting smile.

"Of course you're not useless, Robin. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, my happy ending, and don't you forget that," Regina advanced slowly towards Robin, edging around the kitchen table. She grabbed the towel Robin was holding and threw it onto the counter behind her. Taking the sides of Robin's face in her hands, she pulled him into a seductive kiss. Robin welcomed the intimacy, wrapping his arms protectively around Regina, as if she might disappear if he let her go. Regina held him tighter, moving her hands down to caress his jawline and neck, before finally resting them over his chest and heart. Robin's body radiated warmth, a sensation that Regina melted into, so they stayed like this for a long while. The kiss was only broken so Regina could lay her head against Robin's chest. She listened to his heart beating while Robin closed his eyes once again and kissed the top of her head. Both of them lost track of time for a while, before Regina eventually remembered the state her kitchen was in around them. She looked up and met eye contact with Robin.

"Just one last thing,"

Robin gave her an inquizitive look.

"What's that?"

"Help me clear up this mess."

Robin laughed.

"Anything for my Queen."


End file.
